Marine Depot Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Marine Systems and Husbandry – by Anthony Calfo / I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia ;) / Latest Posts

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

The Big Tuna — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:18:20 GMT

Hey Ant!!

Yeah this is exactly what I have been doing,Chaeto & lr rubble in 3 tanks, main heater has been set at 55f and I have a few plug in heaters in the 3 systems that are out there. I had a couple of people say to try covering the tanks up at night & I have been doing that by covering them wt some leftover gh plastic sheeting that I hold down wt spring clamps & take off in the morning. It has been working very well & keeping temps stable. I have put some xenia & asst soft corals in a few tanks as a test & they are doing very well & growing nicley.

Glad yer back bro,

Joshua

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Anthony Calfo — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:51:12 GMT

[when I will be able to "GIT R DUN" as we say here in North Cackalacky]

Josh... I just wanted to say, I miss you. You are a hoot :p Seriously... very glad to hear about the GH completion and the sensible move to stall filling it until spring.

That said, do still consider heating it to a minimal level (high 50's... most days no heater will be needed this winter) and putting some live rock and macroalgae out there to really establish well over a season. Many of the calcareous and non-calcareous algae, sponges, many worms, etc can easily take sub-tropical temps. It will really give you a good start... plus the initial algae outbreak wont be so bad on the conditioning live rock because of the lower intensity of a winter sun.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

The Big Tuna — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:52:40 GMT

Sonja,

Tried PM ya, but not sure it worked I am in NE NC near Elizabeth city, NC(3.5 hours from ya)

BTW,

Are you keeping differnt roses in the same systems for growout & propping, or are ya monoculturing them by color morphs in different systems?

Thanks,

Joshua

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:45:19 GMT

[quote]subsea (11/29/2007)

Sonja,

Did you visit ORA? How was the visit to Disneyworld? I just did get a smalltaste of getting back to the basics. The compressor went out on my earth coupled heat pump and I have been having to keep my home warm with firewood. The numerous 300W resistive heators in my coral propagation system have been working full time to maintain 75 degree temperature in the water. I also recently got a pound of "Tang Heaven Red" from Indo Pacific Sea Farms" in Hawaii. The Hawaiian locals eat the stuff and call it"Long Red Ogo". It taste pretty good but at $70 a pound, I will restrain myself. This is such a nice time of the year with the cool weather and the holidays. I wish you good fortune on your search for land to buy.

Regards,

Pat Castille[/quote]

Hi Pat,

No we didn't end up visiting any farms while we were in Orlando, Greg and I both were sick with a nasty cold that's going around the Durham area so we stuck with the vacation schedule (disney, disney and more disney) and that was all. It wasn't such a bad drive down (9 hours more or less) so we'll try again sometime to make a dedicated farm visit run.

The land search is proving quite... interesting but we are in no huge hurry, which helps.

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

subsea — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:59:48 GMT

Sonja,

Did you visit ORA? How was the visit to Disneyworld? I just did get a small taste of getting back to the basics. The compressor went out on my earth coupled heat pump and I have been having to keep my home warm with firewood. The numerous 300W resistive heators in my coral propagation system have been working full time to maintain 75 degree temperature in the water. I also recently got a pound of "Tang Heaven Red" from Indo Pacific Sea Farms" in Hawaii. The Hawaiian locals eat the stuff and call it "Long Red Ogo". It taste pretty good but at $70 a pound, I will restrain myself. This is such a nice time of the year with the cool weather and the holidays. I wish you good fortune on your search for land to buy.

Regards,

Pat Castille

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:38:58 GMT

[quote]The Big Tuna (11/26/2007)

I just got my greenhouse completed about 2 weeks ago for the most part, but I will be waiting for spring to put stuff out there as right know I don't have enough livestock to justify paying the heating bill right now... So I will keep growing out broodstock in my garage prop shop till this spring when I will be able to "GIT R DUN" as we say here in North Cackalacky

BTW,

What brand/wattage 65k bulbs are you using for yer Nems?

Thanks,

Joshua[/quote]

Where in NC are you? I apologize if you'd said before and I've forgotten. Durham/RTP here.

For BTA's I'm using Iwasaki 400W 65K MH bulbs and they love it. I was using T8 6500k overdriven on icecap ballasts until recently but the MH is so much more energy efficient it's not difficult to warrant the higher equipment cost. It's especially nice if you find someone breaking down a tank and you can buy MH ballasts used. I bought Ken Stockman's 2x double and 1x single 400W tar ballasts recently and as soon as I can scrape together the $$ to buy luminarc 3 reflectors I'll be replacing all the rest of the T8 fixtures with them.

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

captbunzo — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:34:02 GMT

Hi there... Great thread - great read so far. So sorry to hear about your meltdown a while back. Hope it all works out in the long run!

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

The Big Tuna — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:31:25 GMT

Ha Ha Ha!!!

Know what ya mean bout kids, if these things didn't look like "Cool Alien Space Slugs" he would be asking for money too I just got my greenhouse completed about 2 weeks ago for the most part, but I will be waiting for spring to put stuff out there as right know I don't have enough livestock to justify paying the heating bill right now... So I will keep growing out broodstock in my garage prop shop till this spring when I will be able to "GIT R DUN" as we say here in North Cackalacky

BTW,

What brand/wattage 65k bulbs are you using for yer Nems?

Thanks,

Joshua

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:56:31 GMT

No updates right now, I haven't started culturing aiptasia again yet because we are spending a lot of time now looking at acreage to buy, move onto, and build greenhouses for coral and anemone propagations. I did have a nice person on Reef Central mail me a gallon or so of chaeto full of aiptasia from her sump that I'm keeping in a bucket with an airline, so I have a culture to start with when I'm ready.

It's great to hear of kids getting into the hobby and trying out propagation. My two boys (12 and 8) think it's cool but aren't willing to help me with stuff unless I pay 'em.

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

The Big Tuna — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:49:22 GMT

Hey Sonja,

Any updates on the Berghia/Aip culture project? My oldest son(who is almost 8) thinks growing corals is cool, but that growing "sea slugs" would be even cooler My buddy has 6-8 20 gal tall tanks that are already drilled that he is willing to part wt for free & I do have extra space in the garage

How are they doing?

Joshua

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Spracklcat — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 06:28:07 GMT

Yes, I learned months ago to keep my Aiptasia spread into many separate culture tanks as I lost one of them to overheating (er...cooking is more like it).

Also, when anyone is ready, I have a great source for Berghia. A friend of ours, Justin Credabel, works at and supports an alternative-style science high school in CT, and he is using sales of Berghia to raise money for the school. PM me if you are interested and I'll get you contact info.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Anthony Calfo — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:37:42 GMT

ah... still a great loss. But yes, a life lesson.

Heehee... I heard later I was a "suspect" in the Walt Smith affair. What a hoot :p

Who knows... perhaps my exit was planned?

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

kizkiz — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:40:01 GMT

You can buy very simple thermostats that will turn the heater off if the temp rises above a set level

something like this..

http://www.exotic-pets.co.uk/habistat-thermostat.html

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:07:45 GMT

[quote]Anthony Calfo (9/17/2007)

Ughhh! I am so sorry, my friend And after such a nice weekend at MACNA. It was a pleasure to see you again.

For the future... do see if/when you can afford a controller (Octopus 4000 or the like) and the pager upgrade to email or call you if a parameter starts to stray (even can get software for the PDA to make changes like turning off a heater from remote/abroad)[/quote]

Thanks Anthony, it was great to see and chat with you and Christine again! We really enjoyed your reef toxicology presentation. And you got out of the banquet just in time to avoid being presented as a "suspect!"

The meltdown actually happened a few weeks ago, it was the last weekend of July. So at least it wasn't a nasty surprise to come home to after such a great weekend. I was telling Christine about it on Sunday and we compared notes and ideas on how to get back up to a large population again in the shortest possible amount of time.

The controller is a good idea, except in this case I couldn't have done anything as our tank-sitter and backup tank-sitters were unavailable that weekend. C'est la vie, I will begin again in a week or so when I've caught up on the work from being out of town two weekends in a row and packing/unpacking and all that stuff.

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:02:02 GMT

[quote]porthios (9/17/2007)

i'm sorry, that just sucks. all that work..

glad you're not giving up. i'll be anxious to keep up on round 2..[/quote]

It does indeed suck, it is many months of work as well as the expense of most of a one pound can of artemia eggs, salt for water changes, etc.

But no, I'm not giving up, the redhead stubborness may be a good thing or a bad thing, we'll see how it plays out this time.

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Anthony Calfo — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:20:45 GMT

Ughhh! I am so sorry, my friend And after such a nice weekend at MACNA. It was a pleasure to see you again.

For the future... do see if/when you can afford a controller (Octopus 4000 or the like) and the pager upgrade to email or call you if a parameter starts to stray (even can get software for the PDA to make changes like turning off a heater from remote/abroad)

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

porthios — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:26:18 GMT

i'm sorry, that just sucks. all that work..

glad you're not giving up. i'll be anxious to keep up on round 2..

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:54:03 GMT

Unfortunately I came home from a weekend away recently to find that the heater in my culture system had stuck on and boiled all my hard work to a slimy brown goo. But at the time of meltdown I had 6 drilled 10g tanks in a rack with a 12g plastic crate sump, so all were plumbed together and all boiled. I still have aiptasia in a QT tank for incoming LR so I will have stock to begin again, but I'm at square one again. Very frustrating. I am going to set up the new rack in our garage with our other prop systems, and it is climate-controlled so I won't need in-tank heaters so that eliminates the one element of possible disaster for future cultivation.

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

porthios — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:55:22 GMT

'Right now I have 5 10g tanks and one 12g plastic storage box for my aiptasia culturing. They are, for the time being, all independent systems. I am planning to add 5 more 10g tanks soon, as the ones set up now are getting crowded to the point that I think the population may be approaching saturation for them. The 10g tanks are already drilled with bulkheads installed, and I eventually may plumb them together and run them together with a sump to make water changes and other maintenance easier.'

that and anything else you're using. plumbing shots for extra credit..

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:10:00 GMT

porthios (9/13/2007)

can't believe there are no pics in this thread..

What kind of pictures would you want to see?

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

porthios — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:40:34 GMT

can't believe there are no pics in this thread..

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

DJKoop — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:14:54 GMT

Boy am I glad I ran into this thread. My son and I decided on taking a shot at breading Berghia. We have a few hundred aiptasia and thought we might be ready. Well looks like we will need more time to get a good food supply going. I underestimated the amount of aiptasia these creatures would go through. I would like to hear updates on how everyone here is doing with their project. Thanks for posting all the great info and will be checking in here and there to see what is going on.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

RyanNi — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:38:55 GMT

Thanks Anthony, I'll look into both of your suggestions. Thanks again.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Anthony Calfo — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:27:50 GMT

if its 3"... its not "Berghia" (Aeiolidiella)

As for sales... do try your local and then regional LFS shops (point them to my article on RC if you like).

After that, seek the bigger wholesalers in NY, Miami, Chicago, LA etc. You can reach these folks by reading the links for "business" in my sticky of "Fav links" atop this forum (scroll down to "discussions")

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

RyanNi — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:45:27 GMT

Thanks Sonja, I'll keep watching to see if he chimes in. I am researching this as well but am having trouble finding anything. Thanks again.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:43:04 GMT

RyanNi (5/23/2007)

Hello I have a quick question on this subject. Redsonja if you don't mind me asking, what do you plan to do with the Berghia? Sell them of course but to who? The reason I ask is because I have been catching these things almost daily, in the last week I've caught 22 and only sold 5. Besides the obvious, LFS, forums, etc. Who esle should I be looking for to purchase these? Thank you, Ryan.

I haven't researched that part just yet, as I'm still working on getting enough aiptasia to support a breeding population of the nudibranchs. Perhaps Anthony would have some ideas along that line.

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

RyanNi — Wed, 23 May 2007 14:12:09 GMT

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

RyanNi — Fri, 18 May 2007 14:55:33 GMT

I forgot one thing. While looking in my tank at night with a flashlight (dork) I saw what I thought was an anemone, after looking and thinking a while I realized it was either a HUGE Berghia, or a mass breeding event? What I saw (what it appeared to be) was a 3 inch Berghia crawling on the rocks. I thought this was well beyond there max size so perhaps I saw 3 or 4 all eating the same treat.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

RyanNi — Fri, 18 May 2007 14:53:06 GMT

I had what I thought was a huge Aiptasia population, I would guess 100+. I bought 4 Berghia, one was dead, 3 lived and apparently were breeding like crazy. I did the same as you with the 10 gallon window tank, I kept adding Aiptasia covered rocks and putting clean ones back into my tank. I eventually saw some eggs, after maybe 3 weeks. Well being busy with other things I finally had enough. I acclimated the rock in the 10 gallon to my 92 gallon tank and figured all of the Berghia were dead. I did not see a Berghia for at least 3 months, and I was not pay close attention to my Aiptasia population. One day while talking on MSN IM with a friend I said I probably have about 10-20 Aiptasia in my tank, the next day I looked and I could find 4! I'm not saying they consumed that many in a day, it just takes you by surprise how fast these things eat, and breed. Well unfortunately/fortunately I now have a couple Aiptasia out of 100+ in my 90 gallon tank and know what the future holds for these Berghia. I have been very lucky catching them, apparently when searching for food (?) they float to the surface to find a new location in "the tank" (ocean) to find more Aiptasia. They have ended up in my filter sock on my overflow tube, I caught 9 last Sunday and 6 on Wednesday. One of the 6 died from a lack of food and the 9 went back in the tank to finish off their job. To end this crazy long story I just sold 5 of them to a local company for $120, let the "love" continue. I think this is a great idea, that has the potential to make you a ton of money, $25 a piece, that's insane, but as a person who had a tank infestation, well worth the price. Good luck.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Anthony Calfo — Fri, 18 May 2007 08:35:37 GMT

and anyone with academic access/support from the Scripps institue library... wow: an aquatic science information goldmine.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:58:31 GMT

[quote]Anthony Calfo (5/14/2007)

Thanks Sonja for all/input

To all... you can get most all the aiptasia to pop off easily without killing or stressing much on the live rock simply by a fast drop in temp (7-10F in less than 30 minutes or somewhere therabouts. I've tended to let my temp on the aiptasia rocks in a well aerated bucket overnight fall slower with equal success. The Aips largely bail form the rock in cool heavily aerated water. The rock is otherwise not stressed much (far less than dry for 2 weeks and colder on import )[/quote]

Thanks for more detail, Anthony. I was drawing on memory from MACNA and admit I didn't remember any more details.

I also meant to say in my reply, that my copies of the Hessinger article haven't come back from the person I loaned them to for them to copy. So I'm drawing on memory there as well. I hope to spend a day lost in the stacks at Duke very soon, and take several rolls of quarters for copies. They have marine biology texts from the 1950's up to present day publications, bookworm fishgeek heaven!

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Anthony Calfo — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:54:35 GMT

Thanks Sonja for all/input

To all... you can get most all the aiptasia to pop off easily without killing or stressing much on the live rock simply by a fast drop in temp (7-10F in less than 30 minutes or somewhere therabouts. I've tended to let my temp on the aiptasia rocks in a well aerated bucket overnight fall slower with equal success. The Aips largely bail form the rock in cool heavily aerated water. The rock is otherwise not stressed much (far less than dry for 2 weeks and colder on import )

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:49:56 GMT

[quote]Mark Hein (5/14/2007)

Two quick questions for Sonja:

1) Wherewere you finally able to findthe Hessinger article? I'd like to read it.

2) In your post of 11/8/2006 you allude to Anthony's 'icewater trick' for getting aips off the rubble - could you please

explain this trick? I have a tank full of aip infested live rock that I need to convert to bare bottom culture. Any trick

would be handy!

Mark[/quote]

I found the Hessinger article at one of Duke University's libraries. If your state has an online database you might can find it at a university.

Ice cubes on the foot can be used to convince any anemone to detach from whatever it's attached to. If you have rock you just want to remove pest 'nems from, you can immerse the rock in ice water and the 'nems will probably start to float around. If it's live rock you don't want to damage too much you probably don't want it in ice water very long though.

HTH

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Walter Mitty — Mon, 14 May 2007 15:31:00 GMT

We're building a 125g aiptasia tank with a 55g sump/ASM G3 skimmer. The 125 will be a bare tank. Do we need to have live rock or algae in the sump? I'm thinking maybe we can run the entire thing base with the skimmer going. Thoughts?

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Mark Hein — Mon, 14 May 2007 15:23:06 GMT

Two quick questions for Sonja:

1) Where were you finally able to find the Hessinger article? I'd like to read it.

2) In your post of 11/8/2006 you allude to Anthony's 'icewater trick' for getting aips off the rubble - could you please

explain this trick? I have a tank full of aip infested live rock that I need to convert to bare bottom culture. Any trick

would be handy!

Mark

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:20:50 GMT

[quote]biomekanic (4/23/2007)

I had a think.

What about acrylic plates in the aip breeding tank? Have them running parallel to the long part, with frames holding them in place. Say 3" or 4" between plates, leaving room at the front and the back. This would maximize your surface growing area. You could pull the plates and transfer them directly to a berghia breeding tank.

I'd sketch it if I could, I'll see what I can come up.[/quote]

That's part of the method used by Hessinger and Hessinger, as documented in this article:

Hessinger, D. A.. and J. A. Hessinger. 1981. Methods for rearing sea anemones in the laboratory. Pp. 153-179 in Laboratory Animal Management. Marine Invertebrates. Committee on Marine Invertebrates. National Academy Press. Washington, DC.

In my experience the aiptasia do attach to the acrylic, but since I'm using a sunny window instead of artificial lighting, they crawl towards the light and end up on the side of the tank closest to the window anyway. If you are using light strips as in the above article the aiptasia would probably stay more evenly distributed since the light source is above instead of from one side.

-Sonja

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

biomekanic — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:02:05 GMT

I had a think.

What about acrylic plates in the aip breeding tank? Have them running parallel to the long part, with frames holding them in place. Say 3" or 4" between plates, leaving room at the front and the back. This would maximize your surface growing area. You could pull the plates and transfer them directly to a berghia breeding tank.

I'd sketch it if I could, I'll see what I can come up.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

biomekanic — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:30:54 GMT

Just my $0.02 and some observations.

First off: Cool! I love nudibranchs.

2nd, some of the members of my local reef club think I'm insane (Anthony can vouch for my insanity) but I'm looking to get the brightest colored mojanos I can and put them in a nano on my desk at work. I figure they'd be the safest creatures to have in case someone decides to "help" my tank when I'm on vacation.

On to the topic at hand...

Have you considered feeding Cyclopeeze instead of BBS? Just to cut down on your workload.

Out of left field ideas:

Do aips eat phytoplankton? Would culturing green water help production, even as drip in freshwater cultures for tank top off?

Do they eat bacterial floculant? Removing porous areas certainly cuts down on opportunities for hitchhikers, but it also reduces the area for denitrifying bacteria.. What about low dosing of sugar to increase the bacterial population of the tanks?

If they aip tanks are kept contamination free, would a sump using artificial "live rock" help filter?

How about DSBs in a bucket?

Re faster pedal laceration in high flow. You mentioned having extra MJ1200's on hand. There's a fair amount of DIY information out there on converting them to Tunze Stream/Seio style power heads, in addition to kits. Heck, look for used Seio's.

Lastly, very nice, and an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

Anthony Calfo — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:39:38 GMT

a bit of advice too... pack the freshly scraped/collected anemones in a number of smaller bags versus one/larger bag(s) to reduce the chance of any injured ones fouling and killing others in transit.

RE: I am the crazy woman culturing aiptasia

redsonja — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 19:29:45 GMT

cward (4/17/2007)

Are you still looking for aptasia? I have a remote DSB that is covered with aptasia and I need to increase the depth of sand, so I plan on removing the aptasia growing in the sand. I have about300 or more quarter to half dollar size aptasia that I will ship as long as you pay the shipping.

I will definitely pay the shipping. I will send you a PM with shipping address. Thank you!

-Sonja